Canada's controversial "iPod tax" has once again been struck down in court. The Federal Court of Appeal yesterday rejected a decision by Canada's Copyright Board to collect fees from would-be MP3 player customers to compensate artists for revenue lost to "private copying."
The proposed tax included a CAD5 strike on digital …

COMMENTS

The Netherlands

Is it just me, or does the Netherlands have the only justice system that routinely uses reason to solve issues? My only exposure to their legal system is through El Reg, but it seems that every time I read about a new precident or decision, it seems to be entirely rational.

The difference…

…is that blank media is used to distribute, whereas MP3 players are simply used to consume. You can't equate the two, really. MP3 players may encourage people to try to OBTAIN materials illegally, but that's the polar opposite of the argument for collecting levies on blank media (i.e., that people can use the media to easily distribute illegally).

Unless a rip-roaring trade starts up in swapping MP3 players between friends, pre-loaded with thousands of tracks, I can't see how the Canadian courts could have ruled any other way.

so

they are basically assuming that anyone who buys any medium, in which its possible to store copyrighted material, is a right thieving bar-steward, charging them accordingly and handing it over to the record companies. Isn't free enterprise wonderful!

It's not so bad...

With the "Tax" on media, the government basically told our "Recording Ass. of Canada" that since they're being compensated for their 'losses' they can't go after people for downloading. Hence, filesharing here in the Great White North is perfectly legal! Yay Canada!

Inconsistent...

Not that I am for this thing, but there seems to be an inconsistency here. Well, either they tax both or tax neither. Although the $25 and $75 feel way too steep, I'd say.

If the levy is to compensate for "personal copying" using CDs and cassettes, why would it be logically different from personal copy using MP3 player? (ripping your CD or multiplying copies of a file bought online) Actually, the levy would make *more* sense in the case of the digital audio players, because their fundamental function is music, while CDs can be used for much more than that -- and therefore anybody who would never be interested in making a copy of a music CD (because most now use MP3 anyway) would still be paying for music copying.

AFAIK - no levy on DVD-Rs

Spindles of 100 blank DVDs are routinely on sale for $15. Meanwhile, a spindle of 100 CDs is usually about $30. The difference is the "music" levy because as you know, music goes onto CDs, and DVDs are For Video Only And Can't Be Used For Music Under Any Circumstances.

And last I heard, the CPCC collects the money, and then endlessly philosophizes about when they might consider thinking about starting to contemplate perhaps maybe someday possibly having a meeting to set a date to discuss the agenda for a constructive framework to proceed on forward planning for the eventual agreement on the potential for actual distribution of the money.

Oh Canada, our home and native land....

Actually file sharing is "legal" in Canada because we have sane copyright laws that basically say if we buy a copy of any media, be it audio or video, we have the right to make copies for backup, the car, the country house,etc and we can give friends and family a a copy.

This was written before the rise of digital file sharing, which has plunged us in sorta a gray zone, since technically sharing with people we don't know personally is illegal but then they have to prove that we don't know these folks. So instead of trying to change the law they decided to levy the tax in order to compensate the industry for the lost revenue.

All in all it's not that bad, since you don't really feel it (hey man $30 for 100 cd's still mean it's much less than $1 per cd), and to be honest if you really want to avoid paying a $75 tax on an ipod you can always take a short drive down to the good old US of A and buy it there. Mind you the fuel you would spend would probably cancel out any savings.

Also it helps when when our federal law enforcement agency, the RCMP, basically said they would not waste ANY public funds going after individuals who download and share files.

All in all we have it pretty good here. You can download to your hearts content and not worry about being sued and stuff, but organizations such as piratebay would get shut down though if they where hosting in Canada.

Blank media

seems good to me

why not it would solve the debate world wide if all recordable media was taxed and this went as copyright then the user could do exactly as they wish and download what they want share if they want without fear of the the copyright people sueing for thousands of dollers.

@Red Bren

@mike

And how, exactly, do you decide which artists get what out of the ensuing glob of money?

And why, exactly, should I be forced to pay Metallica and Jay Z for the privilege of using an MP3 player to listen to my own music and that of other independent musicians who give their tracks away?

Copying levies are bullsh*t - they assume the user is a criminal and then compensate the wrong people as a result. If this logic were carried over into real life you'd get charged fifty bucks for walking into a mall on the presumption you were going to shoplift from a clothing store - even if you're there to buy a keyboard and a copy of Bioshock.

New funding models

Now that DRM is dead (for now) it is time to start looking for alternative ways of funding the production of music. As the record companies are doing such a p*sspoor job, some kind of additional direct funding from government has to be a good idea.

Tax the music listener and give the money to music colleges, performing arts centres and independent Not For Profit organisations that train promising artists and help them produce and distribute their own music. There is no reason why the resources needed to make music should all be controlled by a single money-focused cartel - the indie scene needs some money and some protection so as to prevent aspiring musicians and performers being tied into exploitative contracts with a big record companies.

This will provide cheaper music for the listener, will produce greater diversity and will encourage a move away from the big marketing led, production line command economy that music currently suffers from.

Only in Canada eh?!

The saddest part is the recording insdustry is accusing all Canadians of being software pirates. Last year, they succeeded in a tax on all recordable media, tapes, disks etc...It is so bad, that there is nearly a 50% tax on large spools of DVD/CD's!

I guess we Canadians have no personal Photo's, home movies, or legal music we store or mix on cd's...I used to believe we lived in a free country...

Are they going to give the music away...

@ David

And how, exactly, do you decide which artists get what out of the ensuing glob of money?

What makes you think the right artist gets the money now most get pennies if anything from copyright most ends up in the labels pocket. with broadcasting the split is even more unfair with the major labels taking 80% of revenue. even if the station plays only indie labels so it dont matter as long as its paid. The above being a long term argument against the presant system.

iPod Tax - Alms for the rich

The problem with these so-called tariffs (copy taxes) is it allows very rich record producers to get richer using my money paid on the CD I backup my computer data upon. And I can not find a single example of a musician being paid anything from all of the money collected.

See http://cpcc.ca/english/currentTariff.htm for how the tariff is supposedly applied and distributed. It's all very vague.

Here's what the CPCC had proposed in the new tax/tariff that was denied according to the article here http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2002/03/50995 :

$0.59 (Canadian) on blank CDs

$8.00 per GB on Memory cards (hand held computers or cameras)

$2.27 on blank DVD discs

$21.00 in fees for each gigabyte for MP3 players

$0.60 cents on cassette tapes

How do you record music on cameras? The CPCC is staffed by the insane or people so corrupt they may as well be.

We're pacifists...

I remember when I ran a small business. I'd try to go and buy some blank CD's to back up my business files, etc. Then they'd try to charge me the CPCC levy. Even though it was purely for business data, the CPCC accuses me...and everyone else like me of being a music pirate. No way to prove your innocence, no way to challenge being branded as a pirate and thief. I was stunned at how this organization that I will probably never see can have so much power, and to simply brand me a tried and convicted pirate without even knowing who I was.

I tell you I hate the CPCC through and through. I vowed then that I would completely encourage piracy to anyone I came across and gave them lots of copies of my MP3's on CD-R. Then I shared my entire collection online until someone had downloaded every single song releasing every track I ever owned in the wild so that everyone on the planet would have access to those files.

No free lunch for them....

Striking this down is a good thing, and we should do away with the tax on blank media too. I use CDs and DVDs for data storage that is NOT related to the entertainment industry. The tax drives up my costs and my customers costs. The world does not owe the recording industry (they are the ones doing the lobbying) a living. Under the media tax scheme, any artist who strikes out on their own, to use the web to promote and sell CDs they make themselves, will end up funding other artists. Why? Are they somehow stealing the livelyhood of others?

Whats next, taxing pens, pencils, and art supplies to send money to starving artists? Taxiing film to send the proceeds to photographers? Hmmm.. better not give them any ideas.

So they backed down on memory cards (for the second time) and the courts kicked out the iPod tax (for the second time) but they are appealing.

Also some record companies are in court to get the whole thing scrapped because it makes private coping legal. They also don't like that they only get 15% of what's left over after "expenses" (not much). CPCC do have VERY nice offices here in Toronto.

Cheese and Mountain Land

In Switzerland the ipod tax was recently passed in the summer... prices went up a lot. Other legislature means it is not quite illegal to download, but uploading is. Still no cases yet to prove or disprove the laws.

Flash hard drives

What happens when Canada starts to use flash based hard drives for storage instead of these big heavy whizzy things we use now? I think there are 2 Micro Laptops on the market that use memory cards instead of hard drive space. Are they finaly going to be able to use this levvy to get at the rest of your storage?

@Michael

But do they ???

And my point still stands... given the relative sizes of the classical vs 'shit' market/catalogue/turnover more of my levy will go to pay to so-called 'artists' who perform 'shit' than will support people I actually listen to & heaven forbid any of my money will support your hungarian nose-flute rap !

@Michael

Uploading is still illegal in Canada

We can download all we want in Canada, but uploading is still illegal. The only thing protecting most of us is that our ISP's don't want to release their customers information, so the CRIA or whomever can't go after us. So they're trying to get the courts to intervene, and got pretty close to their goal. They will some day, never underestimate the power of a lobby group.

The Netherlands

They tried something similar here in the Netherlands, but as you can see from the article, the distribution of funds to the musicians is a joke, they're about 4 years behind, and they have no decent overview about what money goes where. (if I start a one man company, the accountancy laws are a hell of a lot more strict for some funny reason.)

There is one nice thing about our laws, due to some "quirk" of the copyright law, I can legally download any music I like, only the sharing/uploading part is illegal. This doesn't fly for software though. I do believe there should be some compensation scheme like the blanket license they proposed in France, that way everybody wins to some extend, and that should be clear to the record company exec's by now you'd think.

pros and cons

again who decides

The thought of subsidising X-Factor winners is my idea of hell, but equally somebody into pop music would hate the idea of their money going to the independent artists I buy from.

In addition to this, independent musicians often bypass the RIAA/BPI etc so wouldn't receive royalties from them anyway. The independent label Fat Wreck Chords had to threaten the RIAA with legal action because the RIAA website mislead people into believing that it distributed monies to the label.

@Michael

You are wrong, there is money in the nose-flute!

I representt the istate of the great Hungarian nose-flute rap artist Shova Flutupdaschnozz. In all humility and by the goodness of God from the sale of his music he has accumullated the sum of one and a quater million euros (1,250,000) and this amount is held in a Bank Account to be given to a nose-flute rap artist to continue the great work of such...................................

Surely the only point is

Commercial undertakings should not be financed from state collected taxes - its called subsidies and its a bad idea - we used to do far too much of that in the UK for all sorts of reasons that seemed like a good idea at the time - we ended up with British Leyland and shipyards with no work. If the music industry cannot modernise let it die.